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Mary Katherine "Mary Kay" Fualaau (née Schmitz, formerly Letourneau; January 30, 1962 – July 6, 2020), was an American sex offender and teacher who pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child. Letourneau was 34, and the child, Vili Fualaau, was 12 years old when she initiated the sexual abuse. He was her sixth-grade student at an elementary school in Burien, Washington. While awaiting sentencing, she gave birth to Fualaau's daughter. With the state seeking a seven and a half year prison sentence, she reached a plea agreement calling for six months in jail with three months suspended and no contact with Fualaau for life, among other terms. The case received national attention. Shortly after Letourneau had completed three months in jail, the police caught her in a car with Fualaau. A judge revoked her plea agreement and reinstated the prison sentence for the maximum allowed by law of seven and a half years. Eight months after returning to prison, she gave birth to Fualaau's second child, another daughter. She was imprisoned from 1998 to 2004. Letourneau and Fualaau were married in May 2005, and the marriage lasted 14 years until their separation in 2019. Early life Mary Katherine Schmitz was born in 1962 in Tustin, California, to Mary E. (née Suehr), a former chemist, and John G. Schmitz (1930–2001), a community college instructor and politician. She was known as Mary Kay to her family. Letourneau was the third of seven children and the first daughter, raised in a "strict Catholic household." Her father was a member of the right-wing John Birch Society. When Mary Kay was two years old, her father began a political career, successfully running as a Republican for a seat in the state legislature. He held positions as a California state senator and U.S. Congressman, winning a special election for an unexpired term in 1970, and the general election later that year. After a primary defeat in 1972, he changed parties and ran for president as an American Independent Party candidate in the 1972 U.S. presidential election. In 1973, Philip Schmitz, one of Mary's Kay's brothers, drowned in the family pool at their home in the Spyglass Hill section of Corona del Mar, California, at the age of three while she was playing with another brother in the shallow end. While no one was held responsible for the toddler's death, Mary Kay later claimed that the incident caused a rift between her and her mother as she said her parents tasked her with minding her brothers and her mother had become "cold" with her afterwards. Letourneau attended Cornelia Connelly High School, an all-girls' Catholic school in Anaheim, California, where she was a member of the cheerleading squad for Servite High School. She later attended Arizona State University. In 1978, her father was re-elected as a Republican to the California State Senate. He intended to run for the U.S. Senate in 1982, but his political career was permanently damaged that year when it was revealed that he had fathered two children out of wedlock during an extramarital affair with a former student at Santa Ana College, where he had taught political science.: 124  Her father's affair caused Letourneau's parents to separate, but they later reconciled. First marriage While attending Arizona State University, Mary Schmitz met fellow student Steve Letourneau. She later found out she was pregnant by him, which had led to complications one day in class when she had to be rushed to the emergency room. Doctors found that she had been carrying twins, but one embryo was still healthy. Following the miscarriage, Mary Kay gave birth to the first of their four children after the healthy baby came to term. She later said that she was not in love with Steve, but she married him after being urged to do so by her parents. Steve also lacked romantic feelings but was also pressured by his parents and willing to marry. Both Steve and Mary Kay dropped out of ASU. The couple moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where Steve found work as a baggage handler for Alaska Airlines. After a year in Alaska, Steve was transferred to Seattle, Washington, where Mary subsequently gave birth to their second child. Determined to get a career in education, Mary Kay enrolled in Seattle University and was awarded a teaching degree in 1989. She began teaching second grade at Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien. The Letourneaus' marriage suffered. They had financial problems, and double adultery, where both parties engaged in extramarital affairs, happened more than once. Her attorney and former neighbor, David Gehrke, said that she was "emotionally and physically abused by her husband" during their marriage, and twice "went to the hospital for treatment, and the police were called,” although no charges were filed. In May 1999, they divorced while Mary was imprisoned, and Steve gained custody of their four children. In 2010, the Letourneaus became grandparents when their oldest son had a daughter. Crime, arrest, and sentencing Vili Fualaau (; born June 26, 1983) was Letourneau's student in both her second-grade and sixth-grade classes at Shorewood Elementary. Fualaau is of Samoan descent. When Letourneau was 34, in the summer of 1996, she often invited Fualaau to her house over the summer break to nurture his artistic abilities. This led to a conflict one day where Steve Letourneau ordered Fualaau out of the house and demanded his wife pay more attention to her natural children or focus on finances; slamming down a stack of unpaid bills and shouting "The school year is over; get working on this!". Mary Kay ran outside the house and tearfully apologized to the 12-year-old Fualaau, which culminated into sexual advances. On June 18, 1996, police found Letourneau with Fualaau in a car parked at a marina. She was seen jumping into the front seat while Fualaau pretended to sleep in the back. She and Fualaau provided false names when asked for identification, and Fualaau lied about his age, saying that he was 18. Fualaau said that no touching had taken place. Letourneau said she and her husband had gotten into an argument, and Fualaau, who she said was a family friend who had been staying with them that night, witnessed the argument and ran away upset. She said she left to find him. Fualaau failed to furnish a driver's license or any government-issued ID card, but the patrolman deduced he was not an adult as claimed. Letourneau and Fualaau were taken to the police station, where Fualaau's mother was called. Mrs. Fualaau said that Mrs. Letourneau was a well-known teacher of Vili's and had no issue with the two of them being in public. As such, the police dropped the matter. She later said that if the police had alerted her to the fact that Letourneau had lied about Fualaau's age and what had occurred in the car, she would not have allowed her son to go back to Letourneau. Letourneau was arrested on March 4, 1997, after a relative of he.... Discover the Sue Kay popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sue Kay books.